how when you try to talk to everyone, you actually talk to nobody

very few things in entertainment thrilled me as much as the last season of "friday night lights". each week was a spellbinding competition to see which was better: the writing, the acting or the directing. the plots took us to different places, and told in a way we haven't heard before. it was real, so real. we knew those characters. we felt those stories. it was the most human soap opera ever created.

unfortunately, nobody watched it. much of that had to do with terrible marketing. it also had to do that the show ran in the country that voted "two and a half men" as the most watched comedy last season. so it's not like we're talking about a market having discerning tastes.

still, it was critically renown. i, and everyone i knew who watched it, thought it was brilliant.

so, NBC has this brilliant show that nobody's watching. what's a network to do? well, they made a nice start by not only selling the DVD at a low price of $20, but also offering a money-back guarantee that nobody except the dishonest would take them up on. smart. plus they're repeated the whole season on bravo. accessible. and, they moved it to friday night, which doesn't really make as much sense, considering that most of the audience would be watching real football, but i guess it takes some confusion out of the process.

that would seem to be enough, don't you think?

i guess it wasn't. you see, what they've done is take the best show on television and made it dumber.

let's begin with a murder. umm...what?

and all those seniors like riggins and tyra from last year? let's make them seniors again. maybe even lyla. okay...what?

and instead of alluding to plot points, instead of making the audience feel what's happening, let's change the character's dialogue into explanations. let's say exactly what's happening. instead of conversations, let's make it recaps. okay...

and rather than continuing the story arc of each character, making them feel like real people, let's make them one-dimensional. the cripple. the drunk. the born-again.

this season just feels like a desperate grab. like a little too much crappy everyday network television, lowering itself towards one of those shitty soap operas that decay the mind.

it's still better than most. just nowhere near as good as it was.

let's just say that i really miss last season.

then again, maybe one season was just enough.